The present invention relates generally to corn milling processes and equipment. The invention specifically concerns production of one or more corn products, such as dextrose and corn oil, from corn.
Dextrose (glucose) is used in a variety of food and industrial products, and it serves as the starting material for high-fructose corn syrup and the substrate for almost all fermentations. The most common method of producing dextrose (often along with oil) from corn is wet milling. In wet milling corn is first soaked in water (steeped) for several hours prior to undergoing a series of grinding and separation steps that result in one or more of several products such as corn oil, starch, corn gluten feed, corn gluten meal, fiber, and corn steep liquor. In wet milling, the starch is purified to at least 99% purity, and it is subjected to heat treatment and reaction with two or more enzymes to convert it to dextrose. The dextrose solution is clarified and subjected to further purification steps to remove impurities such as color and minerals, and then evaporated, crystallized, and dried to produce dextrose powder.